Sunday, January 25, 2015

Throughout human history most people have reflexively
answered in the affirmative.

More recently, certain members of the species have insisted
that labeling women as more emotional was part of a cultural conspiracy to keep
them in the home and out of the workplace.

When you say that women are more sensitive emotionally you
are disrespecting their cognitive capacities and telling them to spend their
time dealing with children, thus with people who have a more limited ability to express
themselves through language.

Besides, certain human beings will tell you this stereotype of female emotional sensitivity has been concocted by the patriarchy to keep women from
their rightful place on the battlefield. If there's anything men dread, it's the woman warrior!

Be all of that as it may, we no longer need to rely on
opinion. Brain science has offered a more accurate assessment.

It has concluded that women are more sensitive emotionally,
especially to negative images.

Researchers
from University of Basel, whose study will be published in a forthcoming issue of the
Journal of Neuroscience, found that women rated positive and negative
images as more emotionally stimulating than men did, and that their brains were
more active than men's when viewing negative pictures.

Such
findings seem to support a common perception that women are more
emotionally sensitive than men "and provides evidence for gender
differences on the neural level," said lead author Annette
Milnik of the University of Basel.

Some of you will immediately declare that the research has
merely shown that the female brain is a social construct, but Milnik prefers to
leave the question open.

She does note, however, that women suffer from emotional
disorders more frequently than do men:

Women
are more likely to develop major depression, anxiety disorder, and
post-traumatic stress disorder, all of which are related to emotional
dysregulation.

This report is hiding another more insidious prejudice. The
study declares women to be more sensitive emotionally, but it could just as
well have noted that men are more insensitive emotionally.

Most of us did not need a scientific study to know this, but
still….

This means that women are more sensitive to the unspoken
needs and wants and feelings of other people. But it also tells us that men have
a superior capacity to deal with adversity and to watch disgusting images.

Anon @3:13pm notes the conflicting usage of the word "sensitive", i.e. sensitive as in easily offended, and sensitive as in aware of other people's emotional states.

But the overview of the study is annoying. Saying "evidence for gender differences on the neural level" is almost meaningless.

Is there a bell curve? Standard deviation Is there overlap? Or are men from Mars and women from Venus? And how does it change with age? Do boys and girls also differ, or are it post-puberty hormones involves? And if so, does it change post-menopause as well?